Chapter 4: The Transformation of Narrative Persona: Personification
Section 1: The Definition and Function of Personification
- The Transformation of Narrative Persona
“Personification” is “for the need of expressing thoughts and emotions, treating birds, beasts, plants, trees, and other things as if they were human in description, or treating humans as if they were other living beings or inanimate objects.”1 From the perspective of imagery, “personification” is “the transformation of narrative persona”: “When describing a thing, one changes its original nature and transforms it into another thing of an entirely different essence for the purpose of depiction and narration; this is called transformation.”2 “When a human becomes a certain thing, he then possesses the characteristics of that thing; when a thing transforms into a human, it then possesses emotions and thoughts. This is the basic cognition of the rhetorical device of personification. Whether a human becomes a thing, or a thing becomes a human, both display a very vivid emotional coloration of the ‘fusion between object and self.’”3 Therefore, the scholar Huang Qingxuan renamed it “transformation.”
The functions of personification are as follows:
(1) The use of personification can express one’s aspirations through objects.
(2) The use of personification can embody emotions within objects and express the author’s strong feelings of love and hatred.
(3) The use of personification can enhance satire and humor and strengthen the combative power of writing.
(4) The use of personification can describe invisible and abstract things vividly and vividly, making them visible and audible.
(5) The use of personification makes narration vivid and concrete, strengthening the artistic appeal of writing.
(6) The use of personification can create atmosphere and thereby convey emotions and meanings.4
- The Historical Origins of Personification
In “Discussion on the Equality of Things” in the Zhuangzi, it is said: “Heaven and earth were born together with me, and all things and I are one.” This kind of breaking of the objective boundary between object and self, allowing object and self to merge into one, when applied to literary creation, becomes “personification.”
The expressive technique of “personification” appears abundantly in classical poetry and lyrics. The use of “anthropomorphism” is especially common, such as: “The spring silkworm spins silk until death; the candle burns to ash before its tears dry” (Tang Dynasty, Li Shangyin, “Untitled”). The spring silkworm and the candle are personified, giving them human sensibility and expressing emotions of devotion without regret until death. Another example is: “Why should the Qiang flute resent the willows? The spring wind never crosses Yumen Pass” (“Beyond the Border”). The Qiang flute, willow, and spring wind are all personified, possessing human sensibility and expressing feelings of resentment.
As for “objectification,” the allusion of “Zhuang Zhou dreaming of a butterfly” in “Discussion on the Equality of Things” in the Zhuangzi is essentially a kind of psychological activity of “object-transformation.” Another example is: “In heaven we wish to be paired-wing birds; on earth we wish to be intertwined branches” (Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi, “Song of Everlasting Sorrow”). The poet treats the paired birds flying together in heaven and the intertwined branches on earth as objects of prayer and aspiration. This is an imagined “objectification” of human nature.
In addition, there are figurative techniques such as “treating the unreal as real” and “treating the real as unreal,” such as: “Holding wine while listening to several tunes of ‘Water Melody’; awakened from drunkenness at noon, yet sorrow has not awakened” (Zhang Xian, “Immortal of Heaven”). “Sorrow” can become drunk because of wine, yet it does not awaken together with sobriety, showing that this “sorrow” seems to be saying, “I would rather remain drunk forever and never awaken.” Another example is: “Poetic feeling is as sharp as Bingzhou scissors, cutting autumn scenery into the scroll.” Poetic feeling is abstract, yet through the scissors “cutting” autumn scenery, poetic feeling becomes concretized and visualized. Another example is: “Do not let spring longing contend with flowers in blooming; an inch of longing becomes an inch of ash” (Tang Dynasty, Li Shangyin, “Untitled”). The quantitative modifier objectifies the abstract “longing,” turning it into a concrete incense candle. These are associative activities that “objectify” human emotion. These are examples of “treating the unreal as real,” concretizing abstract emotions and thoughts.
Furthermore, such as: “Do not lean alone against the tall moonlit tower; wine enters the sorrowful intestines and transforms into tears of longing” (Fan Zhongyan, “Su Mu Zhe”). Drinking sorrowful wine alone transforms into tears of longing. This is “one object personified as another object,” comparing object A, “wine,” to object B, “tears of longing.” Thus object A acquires the characteristics of object B. The wine ferments within the sorrowful heart and becomes bitter, sour, and astringent tears of homesickness.
- The Aesthetic Foundation of Personification: Empathy
Ancient Chinese understanding of empathy originated from artistic creation and appreciation of artworks. Expressions used by the ancients such as “using objects to convey emotion,” “being moved by things and stirred to emotion,” “drawing analogies to inspire one’s own mind,” “wonderful correspondences communicating with the spirit,” “transferring imagination to achieve subtle understanding,” and “upon climbing mountains, one’s emotions fill the mountains,” all reveal the phenomenon of empathy.
From the perspective of modern aesthetics, “personification” originates from “empathy.” “Empathy” means projecting one’s own emotions onto external objects, as though those objects also possessed the same emotions. This is an extremely common experience. Such experiences are like what the poet Xin Qiji described in “He Xinlang”: “I see the green mountains so enchanting; I imagine the green mountains see me likewise. Emotion and appearance are somewhat alike.” The emotions within the poet and the appearance of the green mountains merge together because the poet projects emotion onto the mountains, resulting in emotional communion with them and a sense that both possess similarly enchanting forms. This is precisely what Wang Guowei meant when he said: “In the realm where there is self, I observe things through myself, therefore all things bear my colors. In the realm without self, I observe things through things, therefore I no longer know what is self and what is object.”5 “Empathy is closely related to aesthetic experience. Empathy is not necessarily aesthetic experience itself, yet aesthetic experience often contains empathy. The empathy in aesthetic experience is not only from self to object, but also from object to self. It not only projects my character and emotions onto objects, but also absorbs the postures of objects into myself.”6 Empathy is bidirectional and interactive. “From self to object,” objects acquire the character and emotions of “human” (the self); “from object to self,” humans (the self) acquire the properties and characteristics of “objects.”
The French poet Charles Baudelaire once described “empathy” in poetry as follows: “When you concentrate deeply upon external things, you completely forget your own existence, and before long you merge into one with the external object. You gaze upon a gracefully proportioned tree swaying and fluttering in the breeze. In but a moment, what was merely a natural metaphor in the poet’s mind becomes reality in your own: you begin to lend your emotions, desires, and sorrows to the tree. Its swaying and fluttering become your own swaying and fluttering, and you yourself become a tree.”7
Theodor Lipps (1851–1914) believed that “empathy” originates from “associative resemblance.” “Things capable of evoking associations can only awaken memories of certain emotions, but cannot express those emotions; their relation to those emotions is accidental. Things capable of evoking empathy can not only awaken memories of certain emotions, but can also express those emotions; their relation to those emotions is necessary.”8 In other words, the “associative resemblance” underlying empathy possesses an inevitable emotional connection. It is not like ordinary associative resemblance, which possesses “selectivity.” As Liu Xie stated in “On Physical Appearance” in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons: “Therefore poets, when moved by things, endlessly associate related categories. Lingering amidst the myriad phenomena, pondering within the realm of sight and sound; in depicting meaning and portraying appearance, they follow objects in graceful turns; in arranging literary ornament and attaching sounds, they also wander together with the heart.”9
Because of differing research perspectives, “empathy” has also been divided into the “theory of sympathy” (represented by Lipps), the “theory of inner imitation” (represented by Karl Groos), and the “theory of symbolism” (represented by Friedrich Theodor Vischer).10 The core idea of “empathy” can be explained through the phrase “the unity of object and self,” namely “the identity and fusion between human beings and objects.” The value of this theory lies in its emphasis on the active role of aesthetic psychology in aesthetic activity and artistic creation. Its limitation lies in denying that aesthetic objects themselves possess beauty, asserting instead that beauty is subjectively bestowed upon objects by human beings.
Section 2: The Semantic Structure of Personification
The rhetorical structure of “personification” includes the “personifying subject” (the personifying entity), the “personified object” (the entity being personified), and the “personifying terms” applicable to the personifying subject. Although the “personifying subject” in personification is explicit, it generally does not appear directly in the text. Instead, only the “personifying terms” are transferred and applied to the “personified object.” “Most commonly, verbs and adjectives used for describing people are used to describe things, or personal pronouns and nouns referring to people are used to refer to things, or names for objects are used to refer to people.”11 Personification also possesses imitative qualities12 (the author notes: also called “personifiability”). Through associative resemblance, it imitates A as B in writing, causing A to possess the characteristics or image of B. Therefore, there often exist points of similarity between the personified object and the personifying subject.
The difference between personification and metaphor:
Both personification and metaphor focus upon the “points of similarity” between two things (subject and object). Through “associative resemblance,” they establish connections between subject and object and generate new meanings. Nevertheless, the two still differ in the following ways:
(1) Differences in formal appearance:
- “Personification” possesses “personifying terms” that connect subject and object. These personifying terms are directly applied after the personified object without requiring an additional copula as intermediary. “Metaphor,” on the other hand, possesses “metaphorical copulas” in both “simile” and “implicit metaphor,” whose function is to connect the metaphorical tenor and vehicle.
- In the rhetorical device of “personification,” under normal circumstances the personifying subject is “hidden,” and the personified object is directly endowed with verbs and adjectives, even engaging in dialogue, thereby creating vivid and lively situations. In the rhetorical device of “metaphor,” within the categories of “simile” and “implicit metaphor,” the metaphorical subject appears openly; only in “abbreviated metaphor” is it “omitted,” leaving the metaphorical object to form the semantic context.
(2) Differences in emphasis of nature:
“From the perspective of nature, metaphor focuses upon the points of similarity between tenor and vehicle, using the vehicle to compare and explain the tenor. It is an embellishment of conceptual content. Transformation, however, focuses upon the transformable aspects between two different things, using the unique appellations, actions, and states of one thing to depict another thing. It is a transformation of conceptual form.”13 From the perspective of imagery, metaphor as “embellishment of conceptual content” should refer to the “ornamentation” and “shift of focus” of imagery. That is, the imagery of metaphorical subject B is “attached” onto the imagery of metaphorical object A, causing the appearance of B’s imagery to display a “superimposed image” effect of overlapping imagery. Through “ornamentation” and “shift of focus,” the characteristics of imagery B are expanded, though its essence remains unchanged — namely, “changing form without changing position.” Personification as “transformation of conceptual form” should refer to the “transformation” of imagery. That is, the imagery of personifying subject B is “replaced” by the imagery of personified object A, causing the appearance of imagery B to display a “transformative” effect of “essential change.” Appellations, actions, and states are all presented through the unique modes of imagery A — “changing form while also changing position.”
(3) Differences in rhetorical function:
“Personification” is a rhetorical method that occurs when emotions are full and object and self merge together. Metaphor, however, is a method of visualization, used to depict things vividly and explain principles vividly.
Section 3: The Expressive Forms of Personification
The aesthetic foundation of personification originates from “associative resemblance.” The aesthetician Zhu Guangqian said: “As a result of associative resemblance, objects can become humans, and humans can become objects. When objects become humans, it is usually called ‘anthropomorphism’; when humans become objects, it is called ‘objectification.’”14 “Humanization means personifying objects as humans; objectification means personifying humans as objects; visualization means treating the unreal as real, concretizing abstract concepts.”15 According to scope, it can be divided into: (1) whole-piece personification and (2) sentence-level personification. In modern poetry, personification is frequently used in children’s poetry and object-chanting poetry. Because personification can transform the personality traits of narrators or protagonists into entirely different roles, it often produces highly interesting dramatic effects. Referring to Huang Qingxuan’s classification with slight revision, the author divides it into four categories: object personified as human, human personified as object, mutual transformation between the real and unreal, and one object personified as another object.
- Object Personified as Human
“Object personified as human” is also called “anthropomorphism,” “humanization,” or “personification.” It is “describing a thing by treating it as a human, projecting human emotions and characteristics onto it. According to subject matter, it can be divided into: 1. personification of living creatures, 2. personification of inanimate things, and 3. personification of abstract things or concepts.”16 For expressive needs, the essential characteristics of human beings (the ability to speak, think, act, create, and possess emotions) are transferred onto other things, enabling them to possess certain human traits. This allows things to be described concretely and vividly (visualized), making readers feel intimacy and become more easily emotionally affected.17 Personification is also simultaneously a method of word formation, creating vocabulary through personifying techniques.18 Examples include “mountain waist,” “bed foot,” “needle eye,” “computer,” and so forth. These word formations enrich people’s everyday language, enabling more precise and appropriate expression of the categories and parts of things.
- Personification of Living Creatures
From Lin Huixiong’s “The Method of Fishing Bitterfish”:19
Usually you are more patient than we are
Though earthworms are delicious, the whispered chatter of children
fascinates you even more. In the 1960s
within streams clearer than transparency itself
you whispered secretly, luring us onto hooks
without requiring too much time, like bait
indeed we stripped off every piece of clothing
with complete frankness
The protagonist “you” in the poem refers to bitterfish after being personified. They are a common species of fish found in Taiwanese streams. In these lines, the bitterfish in the stream not only possess “patience,” but also “listen to and become fascinated by the whispered chatter of children on the shore.” They even tease and lure the children’s fishhooks, causing the impatient children to strip off their clothes one after another and leap into the stream to catch fish. Such bitterfish possess not only human “personality,” but also human “wisdom,” refusing to be easily hooked.
Yang Huan, “Little Ants”20
We are a group of little workers who never loaf around,
unable to carry big brother’s storybook,
unable to drag away big sister’s colorful yarn,
we come to carry away the little crumbs left over from little sister’s cookies.
When it rains, little mushrooms hold up the prettiest umbrellas for us;
when crossing the river, flower petals row over the steadiest boats for us.
Children’s poetry most commonly uses personification, because once touched by the magic wand of personification, birds, beasts, insects, fish, flowers, trees, and even lifeless rocks, flowing water, clouds, and rain all acquire human attributes: they can think and possess emotions. Personification “can make lifeless things vivid and alive, and make living things lovable or hateful just like human beings, thereby arousing readers’ resonance.”21 A group of little ants are personified into “little workers,” possessing the virtues of diligence and thrift, carrying away leftover cookie crumbs; when it rains, they go out holding little mushroom umbrellas; when crossing the river, they use flower petals as little boats. Yang Huan’s children’s poetry has circulated widely, and his personification techniques together with his child-centered narrative perspective are highly capable of moving child readers.
- Personification of Inanimate Things
Yang Huan, “Load-bearing”22
The love of trees is faithful
She cannot leave the soil and the countryside.
The life of thunder is lazy and carefree,
knowing only leisurely strolls and joyful journeys.
The modern poet Yang Huan’s modern poems and children’s poems accompanied countless students throughout their years of growing up and were deeply loved by readers. Yang Huan’s poetry possesses a fairy-tale-like innocent sentiment precisely because he excelled at using the rhetorical device of “personification” to create fairy-tale-like scenes and atmospheres. This poem uses personification by first giving the living thing, the tree, human thoughts and emotions, allowing “her” to understand human love and affection and possess the virtue of faithfulness. Next, the lifeless thunder is given a human body, enabling him to move freely, stroll leisurely, and travel joyfully.
Xiang Ming, “Grand Master Chair”23
Left idle for long enough
this grand master chair
still waits eagerly
for the integrity and prestige of those bygone years
The “grand master chair” is endowed with humanity and begins reminiscing about its former glory. This is personification of an inanimate object, which can transform originally cold and emotionless antiques into things warm and humanized. Nostalgia for former glory is a common human weakness. When the grand master chair is “humanized,” “it” likewise possesses humanity and human weaknesses: sentimentality and indulgence in beautiful memories of the past.
Yang Mu, “Taking Leave of Clearwater Bay on December Tenth”24
Light and shadow play among the rocky reefs. Far away
water birds scatter east and west, according to my will
fluttering in flight; some become lost at the edge of dreams
some return of their own accord. The mountain contours reveal faint sorrow
tilting like the lingering resonance of time
the sun slides uneasily between dim red and pale yellow
In this passage of verse, the successive scenic images appearing before and after — “light and shadow,” “water birds,” “mountain contours,” and “the sun” — all become endowed with humanity through personification, expressing various human emotions, such as the sense of loss in the water birds and the sorrow of the mountains. They also perform activities similar to those of humans, such as the “play” of light and shadow and the “uneasy sliding” of the sun.
Guan Guan, “Matches”25
One by one, twenty-something youths wearing flamboyant floral shirts, all day long always wanting to find an opponent to crash into, crashing until a little blood comes out
(they call that burning!)
if they were ever to get mixed together, then they would surely create one or two springs, perhaps
because you feel them warm and glowing
and upon their heads each seems to hold upright a flower bud
This prose poem is exceptionally ingenious. First, the matchsticks appear through the method of “abbreviated metaphor”: “one by one, twenty-something youths wearing flamboyant floral shirts.” This is the image of hot-blooded young men. Next comes the “personified” description of this group of “youths”: “all day long always wanting to find an opponent to crash into, crashing until a little blood comes out,” describing their impulsive personalities, their love of collisions, and their tendency to seek challengers everywhere. Later, “simile” is again used to depict their appearance: “upon their heads each seems to hold upright a flower bud.” Because metaphor and personification are used together, the image of the matchsticks becomes vivid and lively, while the depictions of personality and behavior appear highly expressive and appropriate.
- Personification of Abstract Things or Concepts
Guan Guan, “Spring Rides the Little River Down from the Mountains”26
Night
pulls up the collar of its overcoat
closes its eyes
and sits down
“Night” is originally a natural phenomenon, yet after the operation of personification, it unexpectedly becomes highly “individualistic”: pulling up the collar of its overcoat, sitting with eyes closed, possessing a somewhat “profound and unfathomable” quality like a recluse. At the very opening of this poem, the poet uses personification to give readers an entirely fresh perception. How can “night” possess such “character”? This arouses readers’ curiosity and leads them to explore further.
Li Minyong, “The Genre of Night”27
Moonlight stretches in through the window like a pair of scissors
cutting us into a single person
in order to escape reality
the game of hide-and-seek exists night after night
“Moonlight,” after being personified by the poet, picks up scissors and cuts out human shadows. This kind of visualized imagination is highly innovative and can immediately capture readers’ attention. Moonlight originally has no physical substance, but after personification its image becomes concrete and perceptible.
Yang Huan, “Flute and Zither”28
When stars yearning for the mortal world quietly fall from the towers of clouds
my melancholy walks toward me carrying a lantern of fireflies
The previous line is personification of an inanimate object: the stars, yearning for mortal life, fall from the towers of clouds. In the latter line, “melancholy” is the personification of an abstract thing (emotion), carrying a lantern of fireflies, implying that the poet no longer hides his melancholy deep within his heart, but is willing to face honestly his inner longing for the nourishment of love.
- Humans Personified as Objects
“Humans personified as objects” is also called “objectification” or “materialization.” It refers to “describing a person by comparing the person to an object, projecting onto the person the characteristics of external things. According to subject matter, it can be divided into: [1] personification into living things, and [2] personification into inanimate things.”29 According to scope, it can be divided into: [1] whole-piece objectification and [2] sentence-level objectification. All categories of things possess their own “personalities”: birds can fly and chirp, insects can jump and sing, trees can blossom and bear fruit, water flows downward, the sun emits light and heat, tides rise and fall in the sea… Objectification often occurs within a “materialized” linguistic environment and can give readers a fresh sense of imagery, producing vivid and interesting expressive effects.30
- Personification into Living Things
Lin Wai, “Dog Talk”31
When we go out we do not need to carry identification papers
when we leave home we are not afraid of thieves coming to steal
when unhappy, we bark
when delighted, we wag our tails
what we can do, they cannot do a single thing of
this is precisely the reason they must raise us
This poem performs in the first person “we,” and “we” are dogs, therefore our behavior is: “when unhappy, we bark / when delighted, we wag our tails,” viewing humans and human society from the perspective of “dogs.” This poem adopts an “animal perspective,” allowing dogs fully to express their thoughts and narrate how they honestly express their joys and anger, while simultaneously satirizing supposedly omnipotent humanity, which in reality is restricted everywhere and often violates its own true feelings, speaking and acting insincerely. After humans undergo objectification, people can place themselves genuinely in the “position” of dogs and speak accordingly, thereby possessing the same mode of thought as dogs and speaking from a dog’s viewpoint. Humans naturally do not “bark” like dogs, nor do humans possess tails to “wag,” yet after the imaginative process of “materialization,” all these things naturally become a “fictional reality.”
- Personification into Inanimate Objects
Yang Huan, “Night on the Island”32
O fairy-tale-like night
flashing countless lamp-eyes
it is not insomnia
I am awake within a transparent dream
listening as the train carries night
toward the golden dawn
This poem possesses a gentle tone, like whispers beside a lover’s pillow. Moreover, within the lines there are “sound, light, and color” (trains, lights, gold, red). The lyrical atmosphere runs consistently throughout, making the poem emotionally enchanting and as captivating as a fairy tale. In the poem, the poet uses personification: first endowing the inanimate night with the eyes of street lamps, making it seem as though the night itself is opening wide the great eyes of streetlights; next, the poet further imagines himself as a street lamp, awake within a transparent dream. Following the trajectory of the night scenery, the poet continues his “directional association,” and the night train is likewise drawn into the dreamlike nocturnal landscape. In “object-chanting poetry,” if the perspective of the “object” is adopted and the first person “I” is used for narration, “objectification” is often employed, such as in Lin Huanzhang’s “Moments of Loneliness” and Sun Ziping’s “Excavator”:
Lin Huanzhang, “Moments of Loneliness”33
After the lights are extinguished
only then do I begin to shine
because every sentence I think of
becomes
starlight in the cold night
Using the technique of “objectification,” the poet imagines himself as a “luminous object” in the cold night, then speaks of “I” from the perspective of an object: “every sentence I think of / becomes / starlight in the cold night.” The poetic lines shimmer like starlight in the freezing night.
Sun Ziping, “Excavator”34
When I have already fallen deeply asleep
time comes to dismantle my dreams
dismantling eyes, breasts, and penis
I can only bend down
to pick up the parts of sorrow
and the disintegration of happiness
The poet first objectifies himself through personification into a mechanical “excavator,” then narrates the experiences within his dream from the perspective of the excavator, while “time” itself becomes “personified,” arriving to dismantle the excavator within sleep. This technique of “fusion between object and self,” together with the first-person narrative perspective, is precisely a typical example of “objectification.”
Whale to Sea, “You Are That Kind of Stronger Wind”35
Regarding torrential separation
the rules of fallen leaves covering the streets and daylight gradually shortening
even if I continue chasing the past
I will never meet you again
you are that kind of stronger wind
my soul clings onto it
so easily scattered
“You are that kind of stronger wind” first undergoes metaphor, causing “you” to become personified as “wind,” possessing the material qualities of wind. The poet then says: “my soul clings onto it / so easily scattered.” The soul is originally an abstract thing, yet it becomes easily scattered because it clings to “you,” who possess “the properties of wind.” This occurs due to materialization.
Zhang Mo, “Stele”36
Just like this, leaning obliquely
against each other
upon your body
a desolate storm
lazily and loosely
engraves
The “you” in the poem is personified as a stone stele, and the stele together with the hidden narrator “I” lean obliquely against one another. You allow wind and rain to engrave upon your body; this is imagination after materialization. The lazy and languid wind and rain are themselves humanized. Many “object-chanting poems” first undergo personality transformation through “materialization,” then observe surrounding things through “the properties and viewpoint of objects.” This contrasts interestingly with the “humanization” of objects in fairy tales and children’s poetry, where objects possess “human attributes and viewpoints” through which they think and speak.
Zheng Chouyu, “Life”37
Sliding down the slope across the long sky, I am a meteor with extinguished lights
riding the slight chill of night rain, hurrying along a road toward gambling
my life, cast forth like raindrops, stirs up a night of mist upon the lake
enough, life is so short, yet so magnificently short
The poet says that he is a meteor whose lights have gone out, so brief and helpless. Yet even while approaching destruction, he still wishes to exhaust his final strength: “my life, cast forth like raindrops, stirs up a night of mist upon the lake.” Even if brief, to have been this magnificent and splendid leaves no regret.
- Mutual Transformation Between the Abstract and the Concrete
The rhetorical method of “mutual transformation between the abstract and the concrete” is also called “visualization.” It includes “treating the abstract as concrete,” which means “transforming abstract concepts into concrete people, matters, and objects,”38 as well as “treating the concrete as abstract,” transforming concrete people, matters, and objects into abstract emotions and thoughts.
Yu Guangzhong, “Under the Full Moon”39
Then fold a broader lotus leaf
and wrap up a piece of moonlight to take back
take it back and tuck it inside Tang poetry
flattened, like pressed longing
Longing is originally an abstract emotion, and it possesses no physical similarity to the image of moonlight. However, inspired by Li Bai’s “Quiet Night Thoughts,” the poet suddenly imagines wrapping moonlight in a lotus leaf and taking it back, tucking it inside Tang poetry, where it echoes the moonlight glimpsed by the homesick traveler in “Quiet Night Thoughts.” “Moonlight” being “like flattened longing” is the objectification achieved through simile — namely, “treating the abstract as concrete.”
Ye Weilian, “Speeding Along”40
Spring
upon the pale gray and pale white snowy ground
wanders about as usual
black branches
when no one is paying attention, tremble with tiny points of fresh green
“Spring” is an abstract concept. The poet gives it a concrete image, saying that it “upon the pale gray and pale white snowy ground / wanders about as usual.” Readers then seem actually to see “spring” wandering upon the snowfield. This too is an expressive technique of “treating the abstract as concrete.”
Whale to Sea, “Passing Donggang’s Ageless Bridge by Car”41
Longing swoops like water birds toward the smiling broad bay
once again it is the season for dreaming the same dream
traveling a thousand miles to reach Ageless Bridge
masked by dusk
using stars as cover
time is a smiling bandit
The two abstract concepts, “longing” and “time,” under the poet’s “treating the abstract as concrete,” become “water birds” and “a smiling bandit,” their images becoming concrete and perceptible. “The smiling broad bay,” meanwhile, is the personification of an inanimate object. Through the personifying technique of “treating the abstract as concrete,” the poet gives longing wings, while time, this “smiling bandit,” “masks itself with dusk / and uses stars as cover,” creating a highly interesting effect.
Zhong Ling, “Book Burner”42
Do not let your dreams
like the blue of the sky
wrap themselves around me everywhere
because in spring and autumn
I can live only within one season
Dreams being “as blue as the sky” implies that melancholy is omnipresent and follows like a shadow. The poet fears being wrapped everywhere by “your dreams that are like the blue of the sky.” This is the visualization of abstract dreams through the personifying technique of “treating the abstract as concrete.”
Whale to Sea, “My Happiness Needs Someone to Remind Me”43
Plastic bags hang everywhere throughout this city
like dreams that have been overused
my sorrow cannot withstand testing
Because plastic bags hang everywhere, it is as though people have overused their dreams, causing the poet to feel sorrowful and discouraged. Through the metaphor of “dreams,” and by “treating the concrete as abstract,” the plastic bags are “concrete entities,” while “dreams” are abstract conceptual entities.
- One Object Personified as Another Object
“One object personified as another object” means comparing this object to that object, so that this object is endowed with the “characteristics” or “attributes” of that object. The scholar Huang Lizhen classified “one object personified as another object” under “objectification.”44 The author, however, believes that although the personified entity in “objectification” is an “object,” its subject is a “human,” which differs from “one object personified as another object,” where both the personified entity and the principal subject are “objects.”
Shang Qin, “Sketches of the Five Senses: Eyebrows”45
Only wings
yet no body — a bird
between crying and laughing
continuously flying
Eyebrows bend because of crying and laughing, while wings flap because of flying; in imagery they possess similarity. The poet grasps this point of resemblance and connects the two images together, thereby enriching the semantic image of eyebrows. This is the use of “associative resemblance” within association: personifying this object as that object.
Lin Zongyuan, “People Say You Are a Sweet Potato”46
People say you are a sweet potato / split open with yellow flesh / bleeding white blood buried in the soil / blooming endlessly fading flowers upon the earth while living / not loving the sun not loving the moon is that really so / only to be boiled fried roasted / even ground to pieces without resistance / with only a little soil and water / you still want to grow thin and long / is it really true? your flesh is very sweet / your worth is very vulgar / people bury you in the soil / without will and without wanting to escape the earth hole / even if half of you is eaten raw / you still live still grow still laugh / you still do not want to resist / only knowing how to lament fate / shedding white tears / crying soundlessly / are you crying?
People say you are a sweet potato / split open with yellow flesh / if only you could bleed red blood / your heart would also become red / then you would bloom fragrant flowers and bear such dreams / unafraid of the sun not loving the moon / daring to stand upon your land proudly and confidently are you not a sweet potato / people say you are a sweet potato / only knowing how to kowtow / competing with one another to grow fatter / fat enough for everyone to take a bite from you / a sweet potato that grows wildly even without soil / go die / go die
Sweet potatoes are common food crops among the Taiwanese people. Because they are not selective about soil conditions and can adapt to various types of soil, requiring little from the environment, planting sweet potatoes became a primary choice for farming families in many drought-prone or barren lands. “Sweet potatoes do not fear rotting once buried in the soil; they only seek for vines and leaves to be passed down generation after generation.” The image of sweet potatoes enduring adversity submissively attracted the interest of many Taiwanese modern poets. Such tenacious vitality resembles the embodiment of Taiwan’s island inhabitants, and at one time even led to the establishment of the “Sweet Potato Poetry Society” to promote Taiwanese-language poetry. The external shape of “Taiwan Island” resembles a sweet potato, while the sweet potato’s resilient vitality metaphorically symbolizes the spirit of the islanders. This is “personifying this object as that object,” and is also “objectification” in the broad sense.
The modern poet Lin Zongyuan created many Taiwanese-language poems, and this “People Say You Are a Sweet Potato” became extremely popular and one of his representative works. The problem faced by Taiwanese-language poetry lies in “having sounds but no characters.” Even when written characters are found, because they were previously rare and seldom used, they are neither advantageous for creation nor easy to disseminate. Under the current circumstances, Taiwanese-language poetry creation has only just begun and still has a very long road ahead.
Luo Fu, “Drinking in Seclusion Together with Li He”47
Stone shatters
heaven startles
autumn rain, frightened, suddenly freezes in midair
at this moment, outside the window I suddenly see
a traveler riding a donkey from Chang’an
carrying upon his back a cloth sack of
terrifying imagery
before the man arrives, hailstone-like poetic lines
have already descended carrying cold rain
The line “autumn rain, frightened, suddenly freezes in midair” is the personification of an inanimate object. “Poetic lines” descend together with cold rain “like hailstones,” demonstrating that their force cannot be underestimated. Here, the transferred personification technique of “one object personified as another object” causes the personifying subject, “poetic lines,” to possess the characteristics of “hailstones,” battering readers until their heads are covered in bumps. Reading these lines, one may feel that the poet Luo Fu’s personification is somewhat exaggerated, yet it overflows with lively interest.
【Notes】
(1) Compiled by Wang Yizao and two others, Rhetoric in Literature and Language, Hong Kong: Macmillan, 1987, p. 25.
(2) Huang Qingxuan, Rhetoric, Taipei: Sanmin, 2002, p. 377.
(3) Huang Lizhen, Practical Rhetoric (Revised Edition), Taipei: Guojia, 2004, p. 117.
(4) Edited by Lu Jiaxiang and Chi Taining, Dictionary of Examples of Rhetorical Methods, Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education, 1990, pp. 3–4.
(5) Wang Guowei, Renjian Cihua, Taipei: Tianlong, 1981, p. 2.
(6) Zhu Guangqian, “You Are Not a Fish, How Do You Know the Joy of Fish: The Humanization of the Universe,” collected in Talks on Beauty, Taipei: Jinfeng, 1992, p. 22.
(7) Quoted from Zhu Guangqian, Psychology of Literature and Art, Taipei: Kaiming, 1986, p. 41.
(8) Zhu Guangqian, Psychology of Literature and Art, Taipei: Kaiming, 1986, p. 47.
(9) Liu Xie, The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, annotated by Zhou Zhenfu, Taipei: Liren, 1984, p. 845.
(10) Edited by Wang Shide, Dictionary of Aesthetics, Taipei: Muduo, 1987, p. 22.
(11) Edited by Lu Jiaxiang and Chi Taining, Dictionary of Examples of Rhetorical Methods, Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education, 1991, p. 3.
(12) Edited by Cheng Weijun, Tang Zhongyang, and Xiang Hongye, Comprehensive Mirror of Rhetoric, Beijing: China Youth, 1991, p. 642.
(13) Huang Qingxuan, Rhetoric, Taipei: Sanmin, 2002, p. 399.
(14) Zhu Guangqian, Talks on Beauty, collected in Complete Works of Zhu Guangqian: Volume Two, Anhui: Education, 1996, p. 63.
(15) Huang Qingxuan, Rhetoric, Taipei: Sanmin, 2002, p. 379.
(16) Shen Qian, Rhetoric (Middle Volume), Taipei: National Open University, 1991, p. 2.
(17) Edited by Cheng Weijun, Tang Zhongyang, and Xiang Hongye, Comprehensive Mirror of Rhetoric, Beijing: China Youth, 1991, p. 644.
(18) Wang Xijie, Chinese Rhetoric, Beijing: Commercial Press, 2005, p. 400.
(19) From Lin Huixiong, Scenery in the Fog, Taipei County Cultural Center, 1997, pp. 105–106.
(20) From Yang Huan, edited by Guiren, Collected Poems of Yang Huan, Taipei: Hongfan, 2005, p. 154.
(21) Wang Xijie, Chinese Rhetoric, Beijing: Commercial Press, 2005, pp. 397–398.
(22) From Yang Huan, edited by Guiren, Collected Poems of Yang Huan, Taipei: Hongfan, 2005, p. 87.
(23) From Xiang Ming, Particles of Sunshine, Taipei: Erya, 2004, pp. 80–81.
(24) From Yang Mu, The Theme of Time, Taipei: Hongfan, 1998, pp. 32–33.
(25) From Guan Guan, Guan Guan Century Poetry Selections, Taipei: Erya, 2000, p. 16.
(26) From Guan Guan, Guan Guan Century Poetry Selections, Taipei: Erya, 2000, p. 65.
(27) From Li Minyong, Requiem, Taipei: Li Poetry Society, 1990, pp. 47–48.
(28) From Yang Huan, edited by Guiren, Collected Poems of Yang Huan, Taipei: Hongfan, 2005, p. 42.
(29) Shen Qian (1991), Rhetoric (Middle Volume), Taipei: National Open University, p. 2.
(30) Edited by Cheng Weijun, Tang Zhongyang, and Xiang Hongye (1991), Comprehensive Mirror of Rhetoric, Beijing: China Youth, p. 644.
(31) From Zheng Jiongming, ed., Mixed Chorus, Kaohsiung: Chunhui, 1992, p. 198.
(32) From Yang Huan, edited by Guiren, Collected Poems of Yang Huan, Taipei: Hongfan, 2005, p. 64.
(33) Quoted from Li Ruoying, Analysis of the Use of Rhetoric in Modern Poetry, Tainan: Firebird, 2002, pp. 195–196.
(34) From Zhang Mo, ed., Bedside Short Poems, Taipei: Erya, 2007, p. 157.
(35) From Whale to Sea, Psychiatric Hospital, Taipei: Locus Publishing, 2006, p. 29.
(36) From Zhang Mo, Zhang Mo Century Poetry Selections, Taipei: Erya, 2000, p. 55.
(37) From Zheng Chouyu, Collected Poems of Zheng Chouyu I: 1951–1968, Taipei: Hongfan, 1979, p. 151.
(38) Huang Qingxuan, Rhetoric, Taipei: Sanmin, 2002, p. 378.
(39) From Yu Guangzhong, Associations of the Lotus, Taipei: China Times, 1986, pp. 12–14.
(40) From Li Ruiteng, ed., Eighty-Year Poetry Selections, Taipei: Erya, 1992, pp. 77–81.
(41) From Whale to Sea, Psychiatric Hospital, Taipei: Locus Publishing, 2006, pp. 23–25.
(42) From Zhong Ling, Fragrant Sea, Taipei: Earth Publishing, 1988, pp. 37–40.
(43) From Whale to Sea, Psychiatric Hospital, Taipei: Locus Publishing, 2006, pp. 39–41.
(44) Huang Lizhen, Practical Rhetoric (Revised Edition), Taipei: Guojia, 2004, pp. 118–119.
(45) From Shang Qin, Thinking with the Feet, Taipei: Hanguang, 1988, p. 106.
(46) From Zheng Jiongming, ed., Mixed Chorus, Kaohsiung: Chunhui, 1992, p. 71.
(47) From Luo Fu, The Wounds of Time, Taipei: China Times, 1981, pp. 161–164.
